Prep Volleyball: Serrano grabs share of MRL title

APPLE VALLEY • After the Apple Valley and Serrano volleyball teams' previous two battles this season, it was a given that their final matchup would be a close, tense match.

In front of a packed gymnasium with the status of the Mojave River League title and the league's postseason seeding on the line, the outcome was going to be determined by which team could maintain its composure and limit mistakes.

It was the Diamondbacks who made far fewer mistakes Tuesday evening, and as a result they claimed a 3-1 (27-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-22) victory, a share of the Mojave River League title, and the league's No. 1 postseason seed.

"It's exciting to know that we're up to the top level," Serrano senior outside hitter Nohelly Brown said. "We fought so hard to be here. We deserve it. We just had the mentality of playing with high intensity. We wanted to play together as a team and we did."

Serrano (17-8, 10-2 MRL) has now won at least a share of five of the past six MRL volleyball titles.

Brown led the winning effort with 17 kills and 14 digs, Kaylee Minnick added 12 kills, and Savannah Ekis had 10 kills as well to lead the offense.

Sonia Rosales dished out 31 assists and had 11 digs, Annie Smolenski had five blocks, and Sedona Hansen — who missed the first two meetings between the teams due to injury — had 12 digs and four aces.

"It feels absolutely amazing. We worked so hard for this and for it to come true ... I'm super stoked," Minnick said. "Our willpower to overcome things helped us win the game."

As much as the Diamondbacks benefited from the performances of their own players, they also took advantage of a host of Sun Devil errors.

Apple Valley (21-5, 10-2 MRL) committed 14 service errors and 11 attack errors in the match, and as a direct result found itself playing from behind most of the evening.

In the first set alone the Sun Devils made six service errors and five attack errors to gift the Diamondbacks 11 points. Apple Valley was still able to rally and turn an 18-10 deficit into a 25-25 tie, but a service error gave Serrano the lead and Brown clinched it with a kill.

Apple Valley cleaned up its act in set two, and as a result led wire-to-wire to even up the match at one set apiece.

But the errors returned at the worst time in the third set. The Diamondbacks led 23-20 before the Sun Devils rallied to take a 25-24 lead and get their large, energetic crowd behind them. But then Apple Valley committed a service error and back-to-back attack errors to give Serrano the set, despite the fact the D'backs barely went on the attack in that time frame.

Fueled by that victory, Serrano raced out to a 12-6 lead in the fourth set. But just as they had in both the first and third sets, Apple Valley rallied and tied it at 20.

But the Diamondbacks regained the lead on another Sun Devils attack error, and pulled out a 25-22 win to end the match.

"We missed way too many serves, and we got into way too many holes early, which is hard to get out of," Apple Valley coach Casie Brooks said. "We did a great job fighting back, but our serves, we missed too many at crucial points."

While Apple Valley made a host of mistakes throughout the match, it also got stellar performances from multiple individuals that allowed them to keep it close.

Morgan Lyneis had 19 kills and four blocks, Courtney Klein had 17 kills and nine digs, Alyssa Sprague had 17 digs and Ryanne Carter had 12 digs and three aces.

Serrano is now done with the regular season and will find out who they open the playoffs against Saturday when brackets are released at www.cifss.org. Apple Valley hosts Granite Hills tonight to wrap up its regular season.

Kyle Glaser can be reached at kglaser@vvdailypress.com or at (760) 951-6274.

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